The present invention relates generally to lighting systems and particularly to a tube lighting system and a housing for a lighting system that can be formed into a variety of custom shapes.
Tube lighting systems (e.g. cold-cathode tube systems) are used in commercial and non-commercial settings for indoor and outdoor illumination, and for decorative purposes, such as for signs, for highlighting the edges of objects, and for other uses. These systems include an elongated lamp tube, or bulb, that is received in a housing assembly. While the lamp tube can be easily made in a variety of shapes, including angles and curves, the traditional housing assemblies for the tubes are fabricated from one or more straight pieces of extruded aluminum which severely limits their design flexibility. Since the shape of the lamp tubes have to conform to the shape of the housings, this severely limits the overall shape of the tube lighting systems.
Therefore what is needed is a housing assembly for a tube lighting system which can be fabricated in a variety of custom shapes, including curves, so that it can be use with similarly shaped tubes to form lighting systems having unique configurations.